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So, . When this warlord first appeared on the scene, many players seemed to think he was at a similar power level to the hated – which is to say a very low one. However, I recently picked Ba’ar Zul up for a second look, and in doing so found myself quite surprised by just how good he can really be!

When I first played Ba’ar Zul, I wasn’t very successful: in fact I had several losses that were broadly thanks to running him with bad compositions. Since then, though, I’ve switched over to a deck composition that makes him significantly more effective.

THE DECKLIST

:Warlord:


:Armies (27):

3x
3x
3x
3x
3x
3x
3x
4x
2x

:Events (9):
3x
2x
2x
2x

:Attachments (8):
3x
1x
1x
3x

:Supports (6):
3x
2x
1x

Ork allies have proved much more effective than Dark Eldar for me. Similarly, my early efforts with Sowing Chaos and a 1s/3s curve were less than fruitful, and switching to a more conventional pattern did wonders for my overall win rate. Frontline ‘Ard Boyz, Snakebite Thug, and Ork Kannon are particular standouts in this deck, and I think I prefer these options to what Dark Eldar can provide.

This weekend, I took this deck out to a store championship over at Gamescape San Francisco (a great store!) It was a 9-person tournament, so far from the largest event, but there were still definitely some tough competitors there.

THE MATCHUPS

Game 1: Bye. Not much happened here.

Game 2: Win vs. . In this game, I played three Slaanesh’s Temptations in a row – on both turn one and two I played Slaanesh’s Temptation and my opponent committed there to counter it, only for me to play another Temptation next turn! This economic pressure hurt Worr’s ability to stop me, and I was able to get myself bloodied in the course of winning a fight on turn 3, setting me up to win the game on turn 4 with my full 3/11 statline.

Game 3: Win vs. . This game took a long time to complete and came down to some tough plays – by the end the rest of the tournament had clustered around to watch what was going on. Gorzod took an early battle advantage in this game and set up for a win on planet 5, but I was winning on command throughout. At the end I managed to defeat Gorzod’s strong army (two off initiative, a , and two copies of ) thanks to Warpstorm, a Khornate Chain Axe on Frontline ‘Ard Boyz, and indirect damage from my three Ork Kannons.

Game 4: Win vs. . Seeing all five planets blue and with my initiative, I kept a risky hand (2x Tzeentch’s Firestorm, 2x Slaanesh’s Temptation, Frontline Ard Boyz, Snakebite Thug, Rogue Trader) in order to play very aggressively. This paid off – my early Temptation kept Kith poor, and while she played an turn one Archon’s Palace the game wasn’t long enough for her command to overwhelm me. I got myself bloodied on turn one this game by sending Zul to planet 2 with a and just staying there – with resources as low as they were following my opponent couldn’t easily afford to abandon the planet with his warlock, but I was fine with getting bloodied early so that I could bully the next planets with the big 3/11 statline.

WARLORD THEORY

Having played Ba’ar Zul for a while and now having tested my theories in tournament play, I have found that one of the most important things to do is ensure that you time getting bloodied correctly. The ideal case is that you bloody yourself taking hits to ensure your units win an important fight the turn before the final battle, then use the full weight of your 3/11 stats to win on the next turn. However, people are not always obliging enough to let you do this! In fact, only during the first game of the tournament (against Worr) was I able to pull this off in the way I wanted. In less optimal situations, you may have to sacrifice a planet or use effects like Ork Kannon to bloody yourself in order to get ready for the final battle.

The main factor that determines when I want to get bloodied is how aggressive the planet spread is. On aggressive planet spreads, with lots of shared icons and early wins, you may need to get yourself bloodied early in the game – even on the first or second turn (as I did in the game against Kith). While this is obviously risky, you need to get your stats in play ASAP in these circumstances, and you always have the ‘Ard Boyz and potentially Iridial triggers to help you survive into the late game. By contrast, on slow planet spreads with few shared icons, you typically need to hold off on getting bloodied until it’s important – unless you know that healing will be available. As befits a warlord from the Planetfall cycle, Ba’ar Zul requires you to consider the planet spread very carefully!

Ba’ar Zul’s main strength is that his 3/11 bloodied stats are enough to win some battles on their own, and the fact that these stats are coming on a warlord makes the deck very resilient to traditional control/damage effects once you get bloodied. For instance, Archon’s Terror and Suppressive Fire are much less effective against Ba’ar Zul than in other contexts, since in many fights Ba’ar Zul himself will be the most useful unit you have. If the enemy focuses on trying to kill Ba’ar Zul, 11 HP means it will take many hits to put you into the “danger zone”, and in the meantime your units are free to attack; if they focus on killing your units, Ba’ar Zul will be there to dish out big damage throughout the fight.

Furthermore, Ba’ar Zul offers extremely good swarm control with Warpstorm and Blood for the Blood God! Few decks can deal with swarms (especially 1 HP ones) as efficiently as Ba’ar Zul, and when you pair that control with cards like Ork Kannon or Tzeentch’s Firestorm to finish enemies off after the initial damage spike, the end result can be very effective. In my tournament game against Gorzod, I went in against a much stronger army but managed to blow it up with my damage/control effects.

Ba’ar Zul’s main weakness is that his hale side cannot snipe at all. He definitely prefers a quick spread where you get bloodied quickly and bully the opponent to a long one where his lack of warlord snipes will put him at a disadvantage in command – while you can mitigate this with cards like Ork Kannon or simply by playing aggressively and getting bloodied regardless, there are going to be some setups where you’re at a distinct disadvantage, especially against decks with lots of command and strong mid-late games ( is a great example). These aren’t bad matchups per se – in quick planet spreads, Ba’ar Zul is very advantaged against Eldorath IMO, since Eldorath’s warlord ability can’t affect Ba’ar Zul himself and those stats are going to be a big problem,but when these matchups are combined with unfavorable planets they can be difficult.

One other thing that can trip up Ba’ar Zul is that in order to use your hale side’s reaction effectively, you need to ensure your units don’t die in one hit. This means that units with high ATK values or Armorbane can be very difficult to deal with – if they kill your unit in one hit the unit dies before hale Ba’ar Zul has a chance to move the damage over, and their heavy hits can quickly put out more damage than bloodied Ba’ar Zul wants to deal with. Watch out for these sorts of attackers – prioritize them with your own attacks and card effects.

Finally, I want to share an expanded decklist, which has not only the cards that I included but also the justifications for each. This might provide more insight into how I think about Ba’ar Zul and why I’ve made the sorts of selections I did. I want to emphasize that this is just one deck that I’ve found success with – it’s by no means the be-all end-all, and I’d be quite interested to hear what approaches have been effective for other players.

DECK THEORY

:Warlord:


:Armies (27):

3x . 0 ATK hurts, but you need a bunch of small drops and the resource bonus is more useful than the 1 ATK provided by

Splintered Path Acolyte

Splintered Path Acolyte

Zogwort's Curse

Interrupt: When you deploy a Daemon unit, sacrifice this unit to reduce its cost by 2.

, given that this deck does not play any Daemons.

3x . Like Rogue Trader, the card bonus is more useful than 1 ATK.

3x . This card is an allstar with your signature support and provides high value in longer games, helping to compensate for one of Ba’ar Zul’s weaknesses.

3x . A basic and unexciting card – does what you need it to do.

3x . These guys are another relatively basic choice – you have them there for command strength and not much else.

3x . One of the best cards in Ba’ar Zul’s early game plan. Resilient units go very well with Ba’ar Zul’s hale side, and 3 ATK can often win early battles for you. Thug is also a great way to set up Kaerux triggers – while a strong card in almost any deck, the Thug is truly impressive here.

3x . Another strong card in the early game, and a high damage dealer later on as well.

4x . These guys have performed very well – they have above the curve stats for their cost and can provide either extended resilience against swarms or spike damage against bigger targets. They also go great with Ba’ar Zul’s hale side and serve as a means of bloodying yourself in some circumstances.

2x . The ‘Ard Boyz provide a great means of extending Ba’ar Zul’s lifespan and synergize well with both sides of his warlord card. Playing them early tends to be somewhat weak thanks to their high cost for combat stats, but they shine in the mid to late game.

:Events (9):

3x . This card is underrated – often being played only for two shields – but still powerful. The damage it provides is greatly appreciated!

2x . A subtler card than it seems, this has great effects against swarms, can get damage on hale Ba’ar Zul if you have undamaged units there, and often lets you set up big plays.

2x . While I’ve talked about the inefficiency of this card before, in the current meta it strikes me as an unfortunate necessity.

2x . You know it, you love it. Some may consider this overkill, but without

Gleeful Plague Beast

Gleeful Plague Beast

Zogwort's Curse

Forced Reaction: After the combat phase begins, deal 1 damage to each unit at this planet.

or

Vicious Bloodletter

Vicious Bloodletter

Zogwort's Curse

it’s probably the best swarm control option that Ba’ar Zul has available.

:Attachments (8):

3x . Needs no introduction or explanation.

1x . This one is a bit situational but goes great with Frontline ‘Ard Boyz or Ba’ar Zul’s Cleavers, and can often be strong on Thug or Warbiker as well. Currently at 1x but may get bumped to two copies if I cut Ammo Depot.

1x . A fantastic signature attachment, this is played for its effect in almost all circumstances – the only case where I shield with this is if I draw it while Ba’ar Zul is already bloodied and low HP.

3x . This card is great for ensuring that the opponent doesn’t get to spread command all over the board, which can otherwise be a problem thanks to Ba’ar Zul’s inability to snipe while hale.

Supports (6):

3x . The Kannon lets Ba’ar Zul pick off enemy cappers (without even having to be there), gives you another way to bloody yourself, and helps in big fights.

2x . Ammo Depot isn’t an all-star in this deck, but provides a solid backup option for card draw and deployment stall.

1x . Among the best signature supports out there, this is dependent on the planet layout but sometimes leads to extremely interesting situations.


That’s all for now – hope this article helps you with your Ba’ar Zul games going forward! Keep in mind that this was written prior to What Lies Below coming out, so it doesn’t include any of the cards from that pack in its evaluation. It’ll be very interesting to see what the future of Conquest brings for this unique and exciting warlord – see you all on the battlefield!